Chapter 131

Chapter 131
Chapter: 131

Chapter Title: Taking Down the Bone Dragon

—

The moment I announced that I would assume all accountability, Ramin gave in without further protest. He had the expression of someone who had just successfully dumped a crushing weight off his shoulders.

He is exactly the sort of person I find irritating, but it doesn’t matter for now. Once this Erosion Core is annihilated, our paths will never cross again.

The genuine nuisance is the task of combing through this miserable cavern in search of teleportation jamming units and Corrupted Idols.

“This is going to take an eternity.”

I was aware that Rank 1 Erosion Cores were vast, but this is excessive. It feels as though we have been roaming for nearly eight hours, yet we have only managed to locate four teleportation jamming units.

This is turning into a grueling battle of patience. We set off one more of the four units we had recovered.

“The rate of corruption is accelerating.”

I surveyed the area, consulted the digital map, and reached a verdict. The intensity is climbing steadily.

If we don’t deactivate a Corrupted Idol soon, the situation could become precarious.

— Located one. It isn’t a jamming unit.
A notification arrived from Han Sang-ah. I replied instantly.

“Understood. I am moving to your position.”

I retraced my steps through the cavern to our meeting point, then sprinted along the trail of markers she had left behind.

— Hostiles detected. They are incredibly powerful.
That was expected. The entire reason for descending into these depths is to eliminate the Corrupted Idols stationed at the center.

“That just proves you found the right spot.”

— I’m glad… but I am in a bad way over here. I can’t take this on by myself.
Han Sang-ah is a formidable combatant, so that says a lot.

“What are we up against?”

— Some kind of giant skeletal dragon that’s reanimated.
A bone dragon. A total cliché of the genre, always appearing in every book or game.

According to her report, it exhales a dark vapor from its maw that causes anything it hits to putrefy.

Honestly, only one thought comes to mind when I hear that.

Could it be any more unoriginal? I have no idea who dreamed up this creature, but they clearly ran out of creative sparks.

“Hold on. I’m almost there.”

Jung Noah and I followed the trail of her beacons with urgency.

— Fine. But if you’re too slow, you might just find my corpse ripped open and my guts on the floor.
“Well, how much should I set aside for the funeral donation?”

— What use is money to a dead woman? Just bring some hot beef soup and a plate of mixed pancakes.
Fortunately, we reached her coordinates before it came to that.

“Looks like the beef soup will have to wait.”

Han Sang-ah was looking pretty rough. That reanimated dragon frame clearly possesses significant power.

“Magic immunity. And it’s through the roof.”

Having resistance to magic is a standard trait for dragons. In that other world, it was a basic requirement for anything claiming that title.

This skeletal version is no different. Within a cavern large enough for its massive body to move without restriction, the bone dragon glared with radiating blue eyes, letting out a guttural snarl.

Han Sang-ah had clearly fought desperately. There were visible gouges across the dragon’s ribcage.

“Get back.”

She needs to recover. Her body was covered in various lacerations.

I twirled my spear and shouted over to Jung Noah.

“Grab her and retreat, then go find more of those jamming units. I’ll take care of this oversized soup bone.”

Jung Noah helped Han Sang-ah up and began to withdraw. At that moment, a deafening shriek tore from the bone dragon’s throat.

Jung Noah’s entire frame went rigid in the middle of a step. Even veteran combatants would find their courage failing at such a sound, their legs turning to water.

Furthermore, the cave walls caused the sound to reverberate and amplify. Even though both of them were skilled, a cry like that would still shake them to their core.

“Stop your whining. Are you calling for your mother?”

I grinned and lunged forward, slamming a kick into the bone dragon’s jaw in the middle of its roar.

The force of the blow caused its teeth to snap together with a sharp—crack!

“Did that sting? I certainly hope so.”

Rather than answering, the massive creature spun around, swinging its tail at me like a heavy mace. It was surprisingly nimble for its bulk. I suppose a dragon is still a dragon, even if it’s just a pile of bones.

Every individual bone in that tail was immense.

My spear met the incoming tail, triggering a massive explosion of sound that vibrated through the entire chamber.

The tail strike, which had enough momentum to bring down the whole cave, bounced off my weapon and crashed into the stone ceiling above.

Large boulders began to fall through a thick veil of dust. I made a wide sweep with my spear.

The resulting wind from the blade cleared the air. In the center of the massive room, the crouching bone dragon adjusted its stance, making a half-hearted swipe at me with its front claw.

“What is wrong with this thing—”

After parrying a few of its strikes, I thrust my spear directly into the path of its incoming claw with a look of pure boredom. The bones shattered and flew apart; the dragon recoiled and hissed at its ruined limb.

However, the broken fragments began to knit themselves back together.

“Do I look like a chew toy to you?”

Who does this creature think it’s messing with? It must have mistaken me for an easy meal.

If I possessed a cauldron large enough to fit that carcass, I’d turn the whole thing into broth.

I checked the digital map, barked out a few commands to Ramin, and then settled into a low attacking posture.

“Fine, it has been a while since I’ve gone dragon hunting.”

The last instance was in the previous world, where I spent time clearing out dragon nests near the Red Mountains while searching for relics.

Of course, this wasn’t a genuine dragon—just a puppet constructed from a carcass.

“Starting off with bad breath, I see.”

The monster backed away, its jaws stretching wide. A thick, black smoke began to pour from its skeletal throat toward my position.

A single touch would rot the skin and melt the bone. That is, if it actually made contact. In this case…

“It’s the perfect fuel.”

⚡ Paradox Flame ACTIVATED ⚡
Cloaking the form in paradoxical fire
The Paradox Flame surrounding my body ignited the incoming dark fog, causing the fire to roar outward. The bone dragon eventually realized something was wrong and stopped exhaling, but it was far too late.

“Magic immunity, right.”

Back when I was riding trains across the plains of Siberia, that kind of defense would have been a nightmare. I used to have to strip away the magic resistance just to use the Paradox Flame.

But now? It wasn’t necessary. I braced my feet and launched myself—a boom like a cannon blast sent me flying forward in a streak of light.

The glowing skull of the bone dragon loomed directly in front of me.

“Just! Stay! Down!”

A massive overhead strike from my spear crushed its head downward, driving it into the stone floor before the skull bounced back up like it was made of rubber.

Every time I slammed its head, my mana drained in a surge, only to be replenished a second later. The cavern trembled with every impact.

After five consecutive slams and rebounds, the dragon managed to clear its head and swiped at me with its front leg.

“Give me that leg!”

I jumped onto the moving limb, drove my spear into the bone, and ripped it upward with everything I had. The spear tip carved a massive trench all the way up its leg.

That bone would eventually knit back together. My actual objective was the energy core located in its chest, protected by the thickest part of the ribs.

“If I hit it enough, the shell will break.”

The dragon lunged again, its mouth wide open. It was time to move. I didn’t bother trying to dodge.

Instead, I spun my spear in a blur, creating hundreds of blue streaks in the air.

One, two, three.

Counting the rhythm perfectly, I dove straight into its open mouth just as the jaws began to close. I slid past the giant fangs and into its throat.

“An undead made of bone? This is your fatal flaw!”

The interior was hollow—no organs, just a frame. I flew through its maw and wedged myself between the ribs, right against the bone casing of the core.

“Break! Just break, you piece of junk!”

Pressed against the protective bone, I activated the blue energy trails and began a relentless assault. The sound of splintering bone echoed as my strikes reached speeds of dozens per second, hammering the core’s housing.

The dragon began to thrash violently, trying to shove its claws through its own ribs to get to me.

“Hahaha! You fool, did you really think that would hit me?”

I moved fluidly between the ribs, easily avoiding its talons.

It shook its body to try and throw me off while taking a deep breath. Dark, corrosive energy began to fill the inside of its chest.

It was desperate to kill the intruder inside using its own decay breath.

“You should know by now that this won’t affect me.”

The Paradox Flame covering me burned the corruption away, rendering it useless. There was no way to get me out now.

“Prepare to be extinguished.”

I continued to batter the bones until cracks began to spread like a web across the core’s chamber.

Once I saw the fractures, I concentrated my entire attack on that spot—perfect, precise strikes hitting the weakness over and over.

The cracks split wide, and a thick, dark aura of resentment began to leak out. It was powerful enough to destroy the mind of almost anyone who touched it.

But for me? It was exactly what I needed.

“The fact that the resentment is leaking out means…”

If I ignite the grudge, it will travel straight to the source. The Paradox Flame flared at the tip of my spear, shrinking down into a concentrated, white-hot fire.

“Goodbye.”

Like dropping a match into a pool of fuel, the fire surged through the cracks.

“Magic immunity?”

That only applies to the outer shell. Once you break through that resistant exterior, the core of resentment inside has no such defense.

“It’s like opening a tank’s hatch and throwing a grenade inside.”

The heavy armor might ignore explosions on the outside, but if you kill the driver? The tank is finished. Provided you can get inside.

It’s the same concept.

The Paradox Flame consumed the escaping resentment and tunneled into the fractures. It then tore through the power source that was keeping the bone dragon moving.

I vaulted out from between the ribs and landed on the ground.

I stood and watched as the bone dragon began to stumble, its animation failing.

“What a waste, I can’t even harvest these bones inside an Erosion Core.”

If we had encountered this in the real world, I would have disassembled the whole thing and sold the parts to Daebak Scrap Dealers.

The struggling stopped. The blue light in its eyes went dark.

“Business first.”

I walked over to the statue the beast had been protecting and unleashed a flurry of spear strikes. The blue afterimages became a blur until the Corrupted Idol was smashed into dust.

“That’s one.”

I retracted my spear, clipped it to my belt, and walked over to the remains. The strongest bones were the ones that had been protecting the center.

“I should take a little bit of this.”

I snapped off about 500g of the bone that had housed the core. Just then, a message came in from Jung Noah.

— Hey! Listen! We found one too! Uhahahahahaha! *cough*… *wheeze*…